Two articles on undergraduate information retrieval

From the desk of "what I've been reading lately..."

Dahl, C. (2009). Undergraduate research in the public domain: the evaluation of non-academic sources online. Reference Services Review, 37(2), 155-163.

Dahl finds that authority, accuracy, currency, coverage, and objectivity (as evaluative criteria for academic resources) are not always applicable to evaluating sources in the online public domain (blogs, wikis, forums, etc). Instead, she encourages librarians to look at whether online resources are at a level of scholarship appropriate to the task, support the argument of the assignment, add value, and present legitimate information. Unfortunately, many faculty members restrict students from using internet resources, such as Google Scholar, and in the worst-case situations, prohibit the use of anything except books and journals found in the library in hardcopy format. Dalh discusses the dangers of approaching information retrieval in this manner. As she states, "revisions to evaluative criteria for non-academic items in the public domain must be based on a belief that such items can be valid resources for undergraduate research, and must shift the focus to whether or not the item is suitable for the purpose at hand, rather than whether or not it is, traditionally-speaking, academic" (160).


Howland, J. L., Wright, T. C., Boughan, R. A., & Roberts, B. C. (2009). How scholarly is Google Scholar? A comparison to library databases. College & Research Libraries, 70(3), 227-234.

Howland et al. compared the search results of Google Scholar with 7 library databases (e.g. JSTOR, Medline, PsycINFO, etc) and found that Google Scholar on average was 17.6% "more scholarly" than the databases. Of the highest interest to me as I read this article, the authors of study find that while Google Scholar returned "millions of hits, many of which are spurious at best" and the library database returned only "a few thousand results that are more focused to the query", "the power of ordering results by relevancy, combined with the fact that very few people ever go beyond the third page of results, creates a searcher-imposed higher level of precision for any search engine" ... and Google is better at moving the most relevant results to the top. In short, Google Scholar did a better job at both precision and recall than the library databases.

2007 Rheingau riesling spätlese (ed. Maximilian)

This off-dry, German riesling has a rounded, full-bodied weight (almost creamy across the sides of your tongue), with hints of melon on the nose and ripe orange on the palette. There's a suspicious metallic taste on the finish, but nothing a bit of chilling won't cover up (hey, you do what you can with what you have). Not a bad deal at $8.

awol

Almost an entire month since a post. Mea culpa. It sounds surprising to say it, but the reason I'm not writing here is because I'm too busy writing. I have a pile of journal article reviews waiting to make their way into a blog post and a few empty bottles of wine to review =). Did I mention the wedding is 4 1/2 months away? Late and soon, getting and spending...

convergence and overload

If there are any gray hairs on my head planning to make an appearance, now would be the time to do so. In addition to the usual rigors of a Masters program, I'm now essentially working two jobs: the usual metadata/office manager/HR surrogate/IT position and a new copy cataloging/student supervisor position. Without getting into the details of the situation, I took advantage of a hiring freeze to voluntarily move into an open position for a special cataloging project in the offsite library. Aside from getting to do actual cataloging work (I'm one of those people who enjoys reading through AACR2 in my downtime), I supervise students: both good additions to the resume. The downside of the entire situation is that for job #1 (the office manager position), I'm trying to do a week's worth of work in 2 days. Perfectly doable except when emergencies crop up. All and all, I really have no grounds to complain about the situation. I'm doing real librarian work (albeit paraprofessional) and it's a step up from the previous position.

But add to that (and the current MLIS course on information retrieval systems) the fact that the parental units are coming into town tomorrow for wedding planning and I have one hectic week to make it through.

All this leads me to say that I've not forgotten you, dear reader. My mind continues to dwell on thoughts of disengaging and cultivating a private life. In fact, the lack of words here may be due to the fact that I'm spending more ink in my journals (analog style!). Next on my list of things to do include wiping my RSS reader subscriptions and starting from scratch, removing myself from social sites that no longer provide ROI (Twitter is on that list, btw), and generally working to improve my online activities so that, at least in a professional capacity, I have an organized and unified digital presence before I complete my Masters. It's forced and artificial, I know, but it's necessary. And what part of my personality isn't forced? (those who know me in RL can attest to this)

Until next time (when I plan to talk more about disengagement... if a wine post doesn't make an appearance)...

(image from massdistraction)

nations regressing into illiteracy

I'm spending today doing a marathon reading of Alex Wright's Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. We've already worked our way through the libraries of Alexandria and China, Cassiodorus's Vivarium, the monasteries of Hibernia, Gutenberg's invention of 1458, Bacon's tripartite division of knowledge, Diderot's revolutionary encyclopedia, Linnaeus's taxonomy, Jefferson's personal library, Panizzi's upheaval of the British Museum, Cutter's numbers, Dewey's decimals, and Ranganathan's facets.

I'm up to chapter 11 where he discusses early ideas about what the internets could have been. This sentence shocked me from my reading-induced trance:

"We might do well to remember, however, that throughout human history the information technologies that mattered most rarely left halcyon outcomes in their wake; for the most part, they left trails of wrenching disruption: burned-out libraries, once-civilized nations regressing into illiteracy, and episodes of blood-curling violence. For all the populist optimism surrounding today's Web, a happy ending is far from guaranteed." (p. 183-4)

Some apocalyptic forecasting for your weekend daydreams. =)

S. Bennett on libraries and learning

Bennett, S. (2009). Libraries and learning: a history of paradigm change. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9(2), 181-197.

In this article, Bennett focuses on the third of three paradigms of space-management in libraries: reader-centered, books-centered, and learning-centered. The first is exemplified by the monasteries and scriptoria of medieval Europe and the second by the repositories of academic libraries in the first half of the twentieth century. The third paradigm is illustrated by the "learning commons" of contemporary academic libraries: spaces that facilitate ready access to [digital] information, collaboration, and what Bennett calls "intentional learning." By providing spaces in which students actively learn (preferrably self-motivated), libraries can transform from being service providers [of information] to learning-enablers.

Bennett stresses the need for librarians to start thinking like educators as opposed to service providers. The superabundance of information in non-print format shifts the space-paradigm back to a user- (rather than book-) focussed need. In other words, libraries as buildings serve the academic community more by providing spaces in which students use information (collaborate and learn from it) than by housing collections.

Two things I would like to add:

-A total paradigm shift away from a book-centered space requires almost complete digital access to all the world's information. Despite Google's best intentions, this is still many years from realization. But as that singularity approaches, I expect libraries will continue to shrink on-site collections to those most basic and highly-circulated materials while moving low-use materials to off-site repositories and electronic formats thus increasing available space for learning-centered activities. In the two universities I've worked at, this has certainly been the trend (special collections excepted).

-Bennett differentiates between creating spaces for "intentional or autonomous learning" and instruction-motivated learning in that the latter denotes a service activity while the former does not. I do not think that distinction is so clearly divided. Bennett's dichotomy is based on the assumption that a "mastery" of information is possible at some level (either individually or technologically) and I suspect that many of those autonomous learners still need help wading through the deepening waters of available resources. Thus learning-centered spaces will still need to provide some degree of reference and/or technical support. That said, I do agree that when considering how to best use library spaces, we should pull more heavily from university-wide learning objectives rather than those of individual departments or courses.

IF y(n+1) > yn THEN converge

Everything that has been rising in my mind came to a head this weekend. Tiffany and I drove up to wine country north of Santa Barbara, bought a few bottles of wine, visited the Sunday arts fair at Stearns Wharf, drove the CA-1 through Malibu, stopped to take a hike up to Point Dume, and (as by now you've heard) got engaged. The all but complete disconnectedness of the weekend (not even cell phone coverage for most of the time) allowed my mind to wade into the deeper waters of my more recent preoccupations; and the intense focus on the task at hand gave free reign for my subconscious (for lack of a better term) to settle my priorities/values into a natural order (natural as opposed to forcibly reasoned which is by far my preferred MO). Those thoughts:

The loss of a private life. I've never given much time to cultivating a private life but reading Sontag's journals makes me wish I had. The internet has provided an efficient outlet for my exhibitionist tendencies but between Twitter, Facebook, et al., I think I've reached a threshold of [sometimes vacuous] output.

Information overload despite filters. I'm proud of the filters I've set up online and off. Considering the number of information channels I plug myself into, I'm relatively overload-free. But despite these, I'm feeling the pressure again and I'm not sure I have the energy or the professional inclination to continue tightening and tweaking the pipes. It may be time to tear out the plumbing all together and rebuild from the ground up.

The need for a professional online presence. Part of that rebuilding process would involve building a new digital space, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, but that project has been put on hold due to wedding plans =) I recognize that I should be turning my thoughts toward professional librarianship more often than I do but the lack of focus is keeping me at bay, Prufrock-style (information literacy, digital copyright issues, web tech, oh my!).

So until I get my act together, be prepared for more wine notes, perhaps some thoughts on Harold Bloom, and maybe a dose of poetry. Blogging starts with trying and ends with focus. Let's see if I can get from one to the next. Talk soon...

2005 Black Mountain Malbec (Napa, CA)

(Father, it has been 5 weeks since my last wine post. Mea cupla.) While I was in the check out line at Trader Joe's, the cashier did the oddest thing. Before she swiped my bottle of wine across the barcode reader, she crossed herself! Whatever her reason for that incongruous act, the magic worked because this bottle is delish. The color of dark, deep red...(no, it can't be). On the nose, fruit and dried black tea leaves that become even more apparent after decanting for an hour. On the mouth, a surprise: peaches sautéed in port hidden beneath raspberries, plums, and rich tannins. Ftw! The whole experience lacks a mid-palette and a long finish, but for under $5, you couldn't ask for a better bargain.

Congratulations, Jeffrey!

Congratulations to my younger brother, Jeffrey, who graduated from the University of South Florida this past weekend! I'm so proud that you made it through to the end. It wasn't the easiest road, but trust me, you'll be glad you did it.

So, does anyone out there need a recent-college grad with a B.S. in Management and Information Systems? =)

Add it to your rss reader: Laurie the Librarian

Trekking through the internets yesterday morning, I stumbled across what may be my new favorite library blog.* Laurie the Librarian (who claims to be both a librarian and a Laurie) is a reference librarian in Canada and a "self-proclaimed super enthusiastic e-librarian."

Recently, she has been posting on LIS journals, including "Top journals in LIS, in my interest area, ranked by Impact Factor", "Generating ideas for possible thesis statements to argue in possible articles", and "Peer-Review Journals in LIS that I’d like to publish in". Each of these posts provides a helpful source of journal titles worth reading or (for those of us who need to start doing such things) submitting articles to for review.

I especially like her "Form to record my ideas for possible articles" which asks for the source of inspiration, the expected audience, options for formulating a thesis statement, possible publishers and possible co-authors when considering an article topic.

Check it out!

---
*previous holders of that title include Information Wants to Be Free, ACRLog, and Academic Librarian ... all great liblogs but no longer new to me. Even better, they're part of my daily diet =)

Information literacy librarian, CUNY

[Working as an admin assistant for the cataloging department does have some perks. I get to do a little bit of everything: metadata, cataloging, tech support, collaboration, workflow analysis, finance. But it isn't a career. So naturally my eyes and mouse clicks drift toward job announcements. I'm only one semester into my MLIS degree, so I'm not qualified for most of these positions (I'm working on that). Until then, I hope someone else will stumble across this and consider applying.]

Information Literacy Librarian (posted Apr 22)
City University of New York, Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York, NY

Notice Number: FY15494 Reopened
Title: Instructor/Assistant Professor/Associate Professor/Professor -
Compensation: Instructor $ 38,251 - $61,514
Assistant Professor $ 41,624 - $71,974
Associate Professor $ 53,982 - $85,842
Professor $ 66,799 - $102,982

Closing Date: Open until filled. Review of resumes begins 4/30/09.

POSITION DESCRIPTION AND DUTIES
Reports to the Chief Librarian. Develops, teaches, promotes, and assesses an information literacy program which will supplement the library’s existing bibliographic instruction program. Collaborates with faculty in integrating the program into the curriculum. Produces informational and instructional materials. Develops and implements an outcomes assessment plan. Participate in reference and collection development. Other related duties as assigned by the Chief Librarian. Evening/weekend schedule may be required.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
* ALA accredited MLS required for Instructor.
* Second Master’s or Doctorate for professorial ranks. For Associate Professor and Professor the candidate must have a record of significant achievement in the field.
* Persons appointed to the instructor title are only eligible for five annual appointments.
Appointment to a professorial title subsequent to service as instructor will only be considered if the candidate has obtained the qualifications for professorial ranks as stated above.
* Minimum 3 years of library experience.
* Excellent written and oral communication skills.
* Demonstrated knowledge of information technologies.
* Familiarity with the concepts of information literacy and instructional theory.
* Experience in library instruction, preferably curriculum-based.

TO APPLY
Refer to BMCC vacancy #1258 and forward two (2) resumes along with two (2) cover letters to:

Address:
Office of Human Resources
Search Committee -- Information Literacy Librarian
Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY
199 Chambers Street, New York, NY 10007

L. Saunders on information literacy in academic libraries

Saunders, L. (2009). "The future of information literacy in academic libraries: a Delphi study." portal: Libraries and the Academy, 9(1), 99-114.

Two things worth taking away from this study:

Defining IL: In the attempt to define Information Literacy, assessment needs come into conflict with reductionist results. Academic libraries need to assess IL programs but the definitions needed to perform such assessments too often becoming limiting. IL should be adapted to various research fields. To quote Saunders: "whether a person is considered information literate depends, to a great extent, on what type of information and interactions with information are valued in that person's particular field of study or culture" (108).

Working with faculty: Many of the experts consulted in this study were attracted to the idea of taking an active role in working with faculty to develop information literacy programs but recognized that some faculty are not familiar with the discourse surrounding IL. Librarians should work with faculty and in sectors beyond the library field to raise awareness of IL or risk handing over the responsibility for instruction to faculty (who often do not have the time nor feel the need for it) or tech support (Search tech is improving but it is far from perfect. Even a finely crafted search parameter needs a human eye to interpret the results).

(from the Bureau of What-I've-Been-Reading-Lately)

Where it all began, or downhill from the start

My mother sent me the sweetest email this morning, tickling my memory with thoughts of childhood and offering dark-glass glimpses of how I came to be so messed up who I am. My memory was built on a foundation of teflon, so these occasional reminders from family and friends are always a delight...

First thing I did at birth? Held up my head and smiled

5 weeks: finally slept through the whole night (made mother very happy)

6 weeks: turned head to follow movement (probably looking for the peanut butter)

10 weeks: rolled over (you have no idea what a relief that was)

3 months: laughed (especially when dad would juggle). Also, discovered my hands. Juggling at 3 months = FAIL

5 months: sat alone (starting a long tradition of being a loner)

7 months: pulled myself up (because that damned dachshund wouldn't stop licking my face!)

First words: "dada" followed by "mama" at 7 months and "no no" at 9 months (I'm still slow to say no)

First outing: “Wally’s Pup” hotdog restaurant in Morrilton, AR. I slept the whole time.

Favorite musical pastime: singing nursery songs (and Johnny Cash) and listening to Big Bird records

15 months: picked out the notes on Grandmother's piano to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”

2 years: I was dressing myself (too bad I never learned how to dress fashionably)

2nd birthday: got a swing set that dad spent hours putting together

3rd birthday: sick with scarlatina. birthday delayed a week.

4th birthday: at Chucky-Cheese with all the children in my preschool class. Pizza was served. Got my first (and only) fishing pole from Grandpa. And as I got ready to go to bed that night I said “mommy that was nice of my friends to bring me a birthday present to my party!" (apparently, no one told me gift giving was part of the ritual)

First movie: (8-15-1986) “Flight of the Navigator” (I'm still attached to that film)

Loves: music, Atari, watching Sesame Street, playing with my brother and Brandy (the dachshund). This hasn't changed in 27 years.

My first day of school: I went right in and didn’t say goodbye to my mom. When she picked me up I said “go back to work in the library mom I’m not ready to go” thus beginning a long tradition of over-working... I haven't left the classroom since.

So if you're in Santa Monica tonight, stop by Bodega Wine Bar and join us for a glass of red!

(photo by gizzypooh)

Let us dare

The weather in Hermosa has finally made a turn toward warmer afternoons, perfect for taking walks around the neighborhood, drifting shore-ward. We thought of Frost as we contemplated the benefits of walking toward dog walkers and runners to the right...























...or toward the shops on the left. A ladybug came along to offer its opinion. He voted to stay and admire the succulents that just came into bloom.














































Leaving him to his own pursuits, we followed the sound of footsteps and strollers toward the ocean's edge...























...and admired the bogenvias along the Strand.























The sun was more than good to us, leaving both our shoulders red touch tender. We came home to a hortatory message stamped by a post office in central Arkansas:























Let us indeed. I hope the sun shines just as bright for you this weekend.
(another post inspired by kthread)

Since when do brain cells have cattle prods?

And on the 6th day, the gods saw it fit to declare a day of rest. Roger that. The events of the last week have kept me busier that usual: class assignments, new dinner recipes, issues at work, commiserating with Prez. Obama over the loss of a great TV show (though somewhere in all this time I did manage to read the latest issue of NatGeo. Time bends for science =). So just to get these things off my mind, here's what I've been mentally kicking around:

--Ubuntu desktop: At the beginning of the year, I installed Ubuntu on my old laptop. I've finally started stumbling around at the command line trying to learn unix. I haven't decided what to use this extra machine for other than a learning platform. Storage? Home server? Any recommendations?

--Torrent: I finally sat down and tried downloading files using a torrent client. Educational files of course. Thankfully, a balanced combo of ethics (I'm willing to pay for quality) and paranoia (virtual germaphobia) should keep me on the straight and narrow. (Maybe)

--Open source paper: Like most grad classes, I have a term paper due. I decided to look at open source software use in academic libraries. My research thus far has been sporadic. Starting Sunday, it's nose to the grindstone time.

--Dream job: One of our assignments for the same class requires us to look at the job market for our ideal library/information professional job (in my case: Reference & Instruction librarian at an academic university) so I've been digging around in job survey papers, job postings, salary reports, and ref books trying to plan out what needs to happen between here (working as an admin asst. for a cataloging department) and there (being able to say "yes, I'm a librarian" at parties without the guilt ;-)

And finally, the largest brainworm burrowing around up there is a desire to revamp my online presence. I'm often perplexed by what I was doing on the internet up to 2004 because it seems I never really understood the value and benefits of the web until I moved to UVA. As a result, my online spaces are scattered, inconsistent and mostly bare-bones (I still don't have a unique background on my twitter page. Scandal!).

So I think it's time to get serious. The first major change I need to make is to move to my own domain. Blogspot has been good to me but it's time to move on. I've been looking at the Wordpress platform and considered using one of their affiliated hosting services (DreamHost looks promising). I'm not sure if my tinker-like code chops are enough to handle my own domain but being that this is really the crux of the entire issue, I think it's time to suck it up and go with it.

The other changes would flow from this: unifying my self-branding, consolidating those spaces to a single jumping off point (think business card worthy), sticking to a content theme (libraries, wine and books)... what I'm really talking about here is making my online self more professional. While I don't see this as a necessary thing per se, it would certainly help when I'm wrapping up Grad Degree II to be able to say: "why yes I'm comfortable with web technologies. Here, take a look at my website." There will be more to come on this once I have all the details ironed out (there are gantt charts involved). But I don't exaggerate when I say that the idea has been leaning its mental cattle prod heavily against my brain the last few weeks.

And so I've decided to take today off. Following this post, I'll be offline for the rest of the day, probably reading or cooking or watching the UNC game. Tomorrow, it's back to the daily grind but for today, it's nothing but sunshine, paper and wine.

(image by Gaetan Lee)